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Sunday, February 27, 2011

I’m here. I really am. I just swamped. Between class, ICU clinicals, paperwork, online class busywork, tests, research, more paperwork, community clinicals that start this week (even more paperwork), a trip to Lin’s, and some Blair appointments here and there, I have NO TIME.

I do have posts in the works when I have a sec to finish them… Farm Bureau Young Farmer Leadership Conference in Orlando, my trip to Linsey’s with Blair, updates on Blair’s hearing, and it’s almost watermelon time! What do you want to learn about watermelon farming? I loved doing the Cotton Elementary posts during cotton season and had some good feedback from that… send me your watermelon farming requests (comment below!), and I’ll do my best to find out what I need to know to answer!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Blair is obsessed with the moon right now, and her talking about the moon has brought back good memories for me.

I’ve talked about how all of us (me, my siblings, our cousin, and all of our friends) spent the night with Mema on a regular basis growing up. Spending the night with Mema meant being sung to sleep, no matter what age you were! It also meant pancakes of all shapes – and pancake drip drops!

One song that Mema’s voice always sings in my head is “I see the Moon.” Every time I think of that song, it’s Mema’s voice I hear.

I see the moon; the moon sees me.

The moon sees the one that I long to see.

God bless the moon, and God bless me.

God bless the one I love.

It’s a great memory, and I’m thankful can still visit her or call her to hear all of those songs. (On a side note, Linsey’s Mema song is “Minnie the Mermaid.” Quite different from “I see the Moon”!)

As I said Blair loves the moon. She doesn’t quite get the whole concept of one moon though. When we left Brad’s mom’s house after I got home from the hospital not too long ago, she looked up and said, “the mooon” and then, “Grandmom’s moon.” I guess when you’re two it makes sense to think that there are lots of moons.

When we were swinging last week, Blair asked, “where moon go?” I told her it was asleep and it would come back at night night time. We had to go to speech that day, and when we came home the almost full moon was peeking in the car window at Blair. I pointed it out to her, and she wanted to make sure that the moon made it back to her house: “C’mon moon” she said over and over as she patted her leg to show it to follow her like she would a puppy. She blesses my heart.

Then at Linsey’s house, Blair and Linsey looked for the moon but couldn’t find it. Linsey told Blair the moon was at her house, and at 4:30 this morning (it was one of those nights that are rare in our house thankfully) she was telling me “moon at Blair house.” Even at 4:30am, she makes me smile.

I was scurrying around the house Friday morning trying to gather up a few last minute items for mine and Blair’s trip to Aunt Linnie’s – via Atlanta for a hearing test, which was the reason for my scurrying.

Monday, February 14, 2011

At one point while I was teaching, my school was going through a transition phase. We had lots of meetings and lots of changes. What I remember most about the meetings is that we would get all of this praise and good news to start the meeting, and then WHAM would come with the “but” and the bad part. The bad part was never anything really bad (it was for the best actually, but you know how we humans do when change is put on us), but the format was used so often that it’s what I remember most about that year.

I had a flashback of that today when I got the mail. Evidently school administrators aren’t the only folks who use that format.

I got a thick envelope telling me that I was getting a gift from Dish Network for their anniversary. (This is interesting since we just got FOX and ABC back after an almost 6 week hiatus due to greediness a dispute between dish and the local provider. We waited out but a lot of folks swapped service.) Anyway. It was a nice shiny large envelope with decorative writing on it. They did it up right. But, I wasn’t even going to open it. Then I decided it might be something tangible that Blair could play with, so I checked it out.

The letter talked about how we were getting a set of movie channels for a whole year free. That was their gift to us for being loyal customers on their anniversary. Two paragraphs later… and by the way we’re raising your programming rates starting if February. Don’t you just love that? Does that whole give-lots-of-good-news-then-WHAM-‘em-with-the-bad format really do anything for people? I’ll be honest. I’m not going to do a thing about it because rate increases are just what happen (the worst day of the year is that envelope from BCBS – ugh!), but I just find it interesting how a bunch of sweet talk at the beginning is supposed to make it all better.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

She tries to pick out mine. But she always wants “mama wear that red shirt,” as she pulls one of my several red t-shirts out of my drawer.

She holds random objects up to her clothes and looks at me with her eyes wide and her mouth-wide-open-because-this-is-so-exciting smile. Why? Because they “match.” (And they do! She’s great with colors.)

She can tell me who gave her just about every single outfit and pair of pajamas she owns. “Aunt Mo got you that… Gigi got you that… Grandmom got you that….”

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Brad and I spent the weekend in Orlando at the Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers leadership conference. Boy, did we have a blast, and I have a lot to blog about!

One of the very first sessions I attended at the conference is blogworthy in itself. The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has launched a completely free (no email address necessary) educational website for kids. It’s called My American Farm, and it has fun activities to practice math, language arts, science, social studies, and health. On top of the curriculum it addresses, the site brings in agriculture education. Our kids need to know about our farmers! What better way than to mix ag education with math or science!

Check it out! MyAmericanFarm.org This site is great for home, homeschoolers, the classroom… anyone! My American Farm was built for grades 3 – 5, but kids on both sides of that range can enjoy the activities. Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Cooking plus play dough equals right up Miss Blair’s alley! She and I made play dough back during the holidays. She had a blast.

One thing I don’t mind is a royal mess. It all cleans up with a little work!

Not only does the little stinker like to cook, she likes to swipe the camera remote!

I let her stir before I turned the burner on.

Then she took all the pictures while I finished off the play dough.

The one thing missing – the mint smell. Our play dough when I was a child always smelled like mint. My mom said that my great aunt told her to put Oil of Peppermint in it (and supposedly it’s found at the drug store). Well, I didn’t have any of that, so I used grape drink mix in one and vanilla in another. It just wasn’t the same though, so I’m going to have the mint for next time!

I used a recipe I found here. All of the recipes seem good, and I used some of the play dough tips, too. The vanilla play dough smelled yummy! I just wish I had had my mom’s icing coloring – the drops don’t work so well. A little drink mix would probably be just right, but I used the whole package, so our purple was pretty much black!

Definitely a fun activity to do with the little cook in the household!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

We discovered where the rooster was sleeping. He had made himself a bed next to the heating and cooling unit, right outside the guest bedroom window. And then he changed it up on us. Last night I found him on guard. On the front porch.

It may not look like it, but we live in town. The police department and city hall are within view from my house. And I have a rooster sleeping on my front porch.

And he watches cars.

We’ve had some dogs in our yard lately (and consequently I lost two chickens yesterday), so I ended up taking him to the chicken house, but I just love how proud he is to be guarding the house!

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Child of God, wife of a farmer, mom to a miracle, RN; picture taker, animal lover, Spanish speaker, world traveler, former high school teacher. I love food, knitting, blogging, and living in a small town. I write about a little of all of the above!

Brad is my husband of 6 years and the reason I live across the branch. From a very young age he knew he'd be a farmer. God gave him the love and the talent -- and he's the best looking and the best dressed farmer I know! He's funny, creative, and he's the most wonderful husband and father. He's the one that can make Blair light up like no other.

Blair is four! We are so blessed to have her. She was born very sick, but God gave her strength and brought her through it. She has hearing loss called Auditory Neuropathy and wears hearing aids. She also has chronic lung disease, but you wouldn't know by seeing her! She is the busiest, funniest little thing who keeps us laughing and on our toes. I thank God for her every day.

Leighton is the happy roly poly who joined our family this summer. He has been a joy and is as sweet as his big sister! He's such a blessing, and we're so thankful for him!